Argentina’s Law of War Manual (1969), referring to Article 118 of the 1949 Geneva Convention III, provides: “Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.”

Referring to Article 109 of the 1949 Geneva Convention III, the manual states: “Parties to the conflict are bound to send back to their own country, regardless of number or rank, seriously wounded and seriously sick prisoners of war, after having cared for them until they are fit to travel.” According to the manual, the following should be repatriated directly:

(1) Incurably wounded and sick whose mental or physical fitness seems to have been gravely diminished;

(2) Wounded and sick who, according to medical opinion, are not likely to recover within one year, whose condition requires treatment and whose mental or physical fitness seems to have been gravely diminished;

(3) Wounded and sick who have recovered, but whose mental or physical fitness seems to have been gravely and permanently diminished.

Referring to Articles 109 and 110 of the 1949 Geneva Convention III, the manual states: “The Parties to the conflict have the obligation, regardless of number or rank, to repatriate seriously wounded and seriously sick prisoners of war.”

In 1994, during a debate in the UN Security Council on the situation in Tajikistan and along the Tajik-Afghan border, Argentina noted that the exchange of prisoners showed the will of the parties to cooperate in finding a solution to the crisis in Tajikistan.

The Detaining Power, the Power on which the prisoners of war depend, and a neutral Power agreed upon by these two Powers, shall endeavour to conclude agreements which will enable prisoners of war to be interned in the territory of the said neutral Power agreed until the close of the hostilities.